


my heart is playing hide and seek

by luciimariiellii



Series: high flying birds [3]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: F/M, M/M, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Sibling Bonding, Time Travel, not Luther and Allison friendly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-04
Updated: 2019-03-04
Packaged: 2019-11-12 01:13:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18000986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/luciimariiellii/pseuds/luciimariiellii
Summary: One part of life that gets weird when you look thirteen despite being mentally thirty: dating.The Hargreeves, and what their romantic relationships look like after they travel back.





	my heart is playing hide and seek

**Author's Note:**

> hehehehe i’m a gremlin
> 
> ik i said that this would be mostly Klaus and Dave but THEN i had a lot of ideas 
> 
> pt four is already in the works, it’s about five in the apocalypse/ghost Hargreeves/ the Hargreeves dealing after five goes missing 
> 
> ALSO all the italics got fucked up and it wouldn’t let me fix it so guess i’ll die

     Being a thirty year old in a thirteen year old body is a really odd experience.

Klaus supposes he can’t complain about it too much. After all, this terrible situation is necessary if they want to stop the apocalypse. But it’s hard, and he has to remind himself of it everyday and sometimes even that isn’t enough to help him.

     This is necessary, he thinks as Diego sobs in an alleyway. This is necessary, he thinks when Dad brings him back home from the mausoleum. This is necessary, he thinks as Vanya cries in his arms after the grueling training Dad puts her through.

This is necessary. That doesn’t mean he has to like it.

 

 

“Are you ready for this?” Ben asks, adjusting the lapels of the only blazer Klaus owns that doesn’t have an Academy patch on it. (He’d ripped it off a year before, or at least a year before in this timeline.) It’s difficult for Klaus to see him through the darkness in the room.

“Yeah,” Klaus says with a lopsided grin. He allows Vanya to give him a kiss on the forehead.

His siblings leave, and it is time.

Klaus directs his attention to the blue glow in the corner and braces himself.

The anxiety and fear that constantly serves as his background noise is growing louder now, like the DJ turned the music up more than the speakers could handle. He’s seen a lot of shit in his life, but this might just be the scariest thing he’s ever done.

Klaus grits his teeth and does something he very rarely does: He calls his power forward.

The ghosts are always around. After all, he can’t really turn them off. But he can amplify his powers, basically shooting off a beacon that screams out where he is. He never does it, because being screeched at by hundreds of tortured souls isn’t very pleasant.

It doesn’t take long for the spirits to find him.

Klaus, the voices say, Klausssss. Klaus, Klaus! Klaus, Klaus, Klaus!

He covers his ears but doesn’t shut his eyes because he doesn’t want to miss him. He can’t miss him. Missing him would be missing his world.

It takes what feels like hours but is probably only a few minutes. The ghosts won’t stop screaming but he does his best not to listen because what’s about to happen makes hearing these bastards worth it.

“...Hello?”

“Oh holy shit.”

He pushes himself through the mass of spirits until he finds him. It’s odd, looking up at him instead of straight at him, and Klaus is sure he’ll be teased about it later.

“Dave,” Klaus breathes.

Dave looks down at him, blinks, then says, “You look a bit younger than I remember.”

What Klaus wants to say is ‘Are you going to leave me?’ But what he says instead is, “Yeah, time travel’s a bitch like that.”

Dave snorts. “This is gonna be weird.”

“Oh, yeah.” Klaus says, then hisses to the air. The ghosts are getting louder.

“Klaus?” Dave asks, a hand hovering over Klaus’s shoulder.

“Vanya!” Klaus yells, because really he doesn’t think he can make himself move to the light switch.

“Klaus, are you alright?” Dave asks. He sounds panicked.

The lights flicker on. The screams subside but they are still there, until sunlight fills the room and they fall silent. Vanya stands in front of the window and Ben is by the door. And - Is that Five, hovering behind him? Klaus isn’t sure, because before his eyesight adjusts Maybe-Five is turning and walking away.

“Okay,” Klaus mutters to himself, “Okay.” He concentrates hard on Dave’s face and makes him somewhat corporeal. He’s still transparent and oddly blue, and it won’t last long, but it works.

“Hello!” Ben says. He is cheerful, and Klaus curses his brother and his people skills. (How does Ben, who was a ghost for fifteen god damn years, have people skills?) “I’m Ben Hargreeves, Klaus’s brother.”

Dave smiles and says, in that enchanting southern lilt of his, “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mister Ben. I’m Dave.”

Then Vanya waves hesitantly from the window and says, “I’m Vanya Hargreeves. It’s nice to meet you, sir.”

“And you too, ma’am,” Dave responds with a charming smile. In the back of his mind, Klaus is glad they are getting along. (It won’t be the same for everyone. Introducing Dave to Luther is going to be hell on earth, probably.)

“Guys, could I have a moment-“ Klaus chokes, “Could I have a moment alone with Dave, please?”

“Of course,” Vanya says. She gives him another kiss on the forehead (He takes a bit of pride in that he gets the most forehead kisses from her, of all his siblings) and then Ben and Vanya are gone again.

And it is just him and Dave.

Klaus looks at Dave and he can’t rid the image of Dave, in his uniform, bleeding out in his arms. Klaus looks at Dave and he can’t rid the sound of himself screaming for a medic, hoping desperately that he is heard over the dozens of other soldiers screaming for a medic as well. But then Klaus looks at Dave and he also can’t rid the image of dancing with him, their skin tinted with light every color of the rainbow. He looks at Dave and he feels the best kiss he’s ever had, with a man in the corner of a club in 1968, under the refracted light of a disco ball.

Klaus looks at Dave. And Dave looks at Klaus.

“So... time travel?”

“Yeah.”

“You know we can’t- we can’t - really do anything, when you’re like this. First of all, that’s technically illegal. Second of all, it’s sort of weird.”

Klaus grimaces and looks to the floor. Of course, Dave wouldn’t want to be with him when he is like this. He was surprised Dave was okay with him in the first place, back when they had their first kiss in that club, and now he’s crossed the line. He’s pushed his luck too far.

“But that doesn’t mean I don’t still love you, Klaus.”

Klaus chokes on air and looks up - not at, up - at Dave. “You- you do? Cuz, it’s gonna be a while. Like, a solid five years, before we can. You know. Although by then I’ll be able to make you corporeal for a lot longer...” Klaus shakes his head. He doesn’t need to think about that right now.

“Of course I do, Klaus,” Dave says gently, “There’s no one else I would rather be with.”

Klaus makes a strangled noise in the back of his throat. “Real - Really? You do know who you’re talking to, right-“

Dave hugs him. Klaus practically melts into his hold.

“This is the cutest shit I’ve ever seen.”

Klaus’s growl is muffled by Dave’s chest. “Diego-“

He hears Vanya hissing and the slam of a door. “Sorry,” Klaus murmurs, “That was my brother.” He leans back to look Dave in the eye.

“Your family seems - nice.”

“They’re fucking insane.”

 

 

 

One part of life that gets weird when you look thirteen despite being mentally thirty: dating.

“I saw this beautiful girl at the music shop yesterday,” Vanya starts with her head on Klaus’s knee, “If it wasn’t for my crippling self-esteem issues I would have asked her out.”

“Also the fact that you look thirteen,” Dave adds from where he is perusing Klaus’s CD collection.

“Yeah, that too.” Vanya sighs as Klaus runs his fingers through her hair. He thinks maybe he should try to braid it.

“Van, you don’t have anything to be self conscious about,” Klaus says. He looks to Dave for back up.

“You know, Ms. Vanya,” Dave says, examining the buttons on the remote Klaus had stolen from downstairs, “My sister once told me girls love confidence.”

“Dave, I’m a woman. I know what we want. And you’re right, by the way.”

Klaus groans. “You’re my sister, you’re beautiful!”

“We’re adopted. We don’t share any DNA,” Vanya deadpans.

“You’re beautiful by association? Listen, all I’m trying to say is that you’re beautiful.”

“Who the hell is Britney Spears?” Dave mutters a bit too loudly.

“Oh my GOD-“

 

 

 

 

Five misses Delores. He really, really misses her.

He’d entertained the idea, at first, of going and finding Delores in the department store again, but she hasn’t even been born yet.

He loves his siblings, of course. He wouldn’t trade them for anything. But Delores always listened, she always knew what he was going to say. She always understood what he meant, he never had to repeat himself to her or dumb his words down.

Five whispers this to Ben late one night, when they are on top of the Academy where no one can find them.

“I’m sorry,” Ben whispers back, because he understands what it is like to only have one person to talk to for so long, “I don’t know what I’d do if I couldn’t talk to Klaus anymore.”

Five furrows his eyebrows and stares out at the cityscape. “Yeah,” he says, more for the sake of saying something than continuing the conversation.

“Hey,” Ben starts, placing his hand on Five’s back, “It’s not gonna happen again. The apocalypse, I mean. We’re gonna stop it.”

Five swallows and turns to his brother. “How do you know I was worried about-“

“We all are.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.” Ben smiles sadly to himself. “But I - I get that you had to go through some shit. In the apocalypse, I mean. I can’t really imagine it.”

“I think you’re the only other person I know who can really relate to what happened,” Five says, and he blames his exhaustion for how open he is being tonight.

“I love you, man. You’re my brother.”

Five swallows and averts his gaze to the cityscape again. “I, um, I... I love you too.”

 

 

 

“Klaus,” Diego says suddenly, twisting the fabric of his pillowcase in his hand, “I could go to the police academy again this time.”

Klaus looks up from his hand mirror. He’s not very good at applying lipstick yet, and it’s smudged all over the side of his mouth. “Yeah.”

“I could-“ Diego chokes down a gross sob, “Klaus, I could see Eudora again.”

Klaus tries to rub the lipstick off his mouth with his sleeve, but it only serves to smear it across his cheek. “Of course, D. That’s the plan. We’re not letting anyone die.”

But what if we can’t stop it, Diego thinks, What will I do, how will I live with myself? But instead of voicing his thoughts he says, “Don’t call me D.”

 

 

 

She’s finally figured out those runs in the Stravinsky.

Vanya dashes down the stairs, violin and bow in hand. Mom will be so proud.

She reaches the bottom of the stairs and is just about to turn in the direction of the kitchen when she sees them. Allison, Five, and Diego, standing still in front of the television. They must have gotten home early from their mission, Vanya thinks. The news is on. Allison has Five’s shoulder in a death grip and, inexplicably, he hasn’t slapped her away. Diego is twirling a knife in each hand.

“Uh, guys?” Vanya says.

Five makes an odd noise in the back of his throat. “Vanya, go back upstairs.”

“What?” Vanya moves from the base of the stairs, trying to get a better look at the television screen.

Diego blocks her way. In the back of her mind, she curses her height. “Vanya, please, go back upstairs.”

“No,” Vanya says, and now she is annoyed, “No, I wanna know what’s going on.”

“A boy jumped over the fence when we came back from our mission,” Allison says quietly, her eyes still trained on the screen, “He said his name was Harold Jenkins.”

Vanya doesn’t register what she said, for a moment. Instead, he stares at her blankly - then she chokes on air. “Oh. Oh, my God.” She has already acknowledged, of course, that logically Leonard was still alive in this timeline. But she’s kept the thought in the back of her mind and now is the first time she is realizing exactly what that could mean.

“Vanya,” Diego says quietly, a hand on her upper arm, “Let’s go back upstairs.”

This is odd, she thinks in a desperate attempt to keep her mind off him. Diego had been angry at her when she first arrived, after Dad’s death, but maybe he was finally starting to let it go.

“I’ll kill him if he comes anywhere near you,” Diego says suddenly. It doesn’t sound like a bluff. “I swear to god I’ll kill him.”

“Not if I don’t kill him first,” Vanya mutters, and somehow she makes Diego laugh.

“Well, how about I just leave that part to you and give you background support?”

“Hell yeah.”

They reach Vanya’s room (the room Vanya hasn’t slept in for three weeks) and she immediately flops down on the bed. “God damn it,” she says, “fucking bastard.”

“Sounds about right,” Diego agrees.

“I don’t want to deal with him again.” Vanya says into her hands, and suddenly the joking is over.

“You’re not going to have to,” Diego says. “We’re not going to let that asshole anywhere near you.”

 

 

 

Of course, the whole family is fully aware of whatever Luther and Allison have going on between them. No one is really okay with it, either.

Luther and Allison enter the main room hand in hand. Klaus looks up at them from the couch, grimaces, then stands on the couch. (Dad will be so angry when he sees the footprints on the cushions-) He cups his hands around his mouth and yells, “Everyone vacate the premises! Vacate the premises, everyone! Luther and Allison are here, vacate the premises immediately!”

Luther stops before he begins whatever wild lecture he was about to start and stares at Klaus with wide eyes. Allison opens her mouth to speak, but Five is already teleporting out. Diego jumps from the couch (using Klaus’s shoulder to propel himself), onto the TV stand, over Luther’s shoulders, and then finally halfway up the stairs. Ben, Klaus, and Vanya run top speed into the kitchen.

Luther turns to Allison, “What’s up with them?”

Allison shrugs, “No clue.”

 

 

 

“Okay, next up: Queen.”

Dave stands behind Klaus, watching curiously as he rifles through his CD collection. “When are they from?”

“They came out in 1970,” Vanya says. She doesn’t lift her gaze from the violin she is cleaning. “And, in our timeline, they’ve just had a movie about them come out.”

“Should we show him Bohemian Rhapsody first?” Klaus asks.

Ben looks over from Klaus’s bed and says, “Yeah, duh. That’s the Queen song.”

“But it’s so overplayed,” Klaus says. He looks at Dave as though to say Trust me, I’m a professional.

“He has to hear Bohemian Rhapsody, though,” Ben argues, “It’s an essential song. Just wait until we have to go through Suicide Squad’s release again, that’ll be the only song he hears for like a month.”

Klaus considers this for a moment then says, “Fair enough,” and pops the CD into the player.

 

 

 

“Delores,” Five says. He stops in his path and looks back at her. “Are you comfortable in that wagon?”

Delores’s expression doesn’t change much, as always, but she says, “Of course. I’ve got all these pillows and blankets, after all.”

“Right.” He turns back around and continues walking down the cracked, empty road. He is silent for a few moments and in those few moments of silence his brain starts working on overdrive again - Klaus, Ben, Vanya, Klaus, Ben, Vanya, Luther, Allison, Diego, Klaus, Ben, Vanya, Klaus, Ben, Vanya, Luther, Allison, Diego-

“So, Delores,” Five says, cutting himself off, “How far do you want to walk today?”

“Until you get tired,” Delores answers. Five hums.

“I’m glad you’re here.”

“Really? Why?”

“I think I’d go insane without you.”

“Maybe you already have.”

 

 

 

Five’s eyes snap open, and he isn’t in the apocalypse anymore.

Instead, he is laying horizontally at the foot of Klaus’s bed. Ben is laying next to him, one of his legs stretched over Five’s torso. At the other end, Klaus and Vanya are curled protectively around each other.

“Shit,” Five mutters. He drags his hands down his face. Careful not to disturb Ben too much, he pries his brother’s leg off of him and slides carefully out of bed.

Getting downstairs will be tricky, but with his power he’s always been the best at sneaking around. Five steps out of Klaus’s room and into the bathroom before he teleports to the pantry.

He peers out the pantry door for a moment before he confirms that Mom and Pogo aren’t around, then tiptoes out.

Five grabs a glass out of the cabinet (he has to climb up on the counter to reach it) and fills it with water. He takes a big gulp, leans against the counter, and sobs.

“Damn it,” he says to himself, “Fuck, fuck, fuck.”

“Five?”

He snaps his head to the doorway, heart pounding. It’s Ben.

“Ben,” Five mutters, turning back to the counter. He sighs and brings his hand to his face.

It’s silent for a moment. Five thinks, maybe, Ben was too out of it to even realize what was going on. Maybe he was sleepwalking, and now he’s already back on his way to bed.

But then there’s a hand on his back and a soft voice muttering comforting nothings. Five remembers, with a tinge of bitterness, that their father would punish them for sleepwalking, until they stopped doing it at all. (Punish, verb: to lock your children in their rooms for a week.)

For some ungodly reason, the fact that Ben is there makes the sobs come more and more. They rip through his throat and they make his entire body shake and he just knows his throat is going to be hoarse when he is done.

“What’s wrong?” Ben says.

“I-“ Five sobs again. He leans back, away from the counter, and without its support he is falling to the ground. Ben follows him. “I miss her so much.”

“Delores?” Ben asks. He is sitting next to Five, an arm wrapped around his shoulders.

“Yeah,” Five says. He runs his hands through his hair, and he grips so tight he thinks he might have ripped some out. “Yeah. Fuck, shit, I’m sorry Ben.”

“It’s alright,” Ben whispers. “It’s okay. There’s nothing to be embarrassed about.”

Five turns his head into Ben’s shoulder. “It doesn’t feel okay.”

“I know. I get it. This pain isn’t ever gonna go away but it’s gonna get better.”

They fall asleep there. The next morning, Dad is livid. But Ben catches Five’s eyes over the table at breakfast, and mutters some complaint about the pain in his neck so that Five just knows Ben wasn’t lying when he said it would get better.

This pain is necessary.

 

**Author's Note:**

> hope u enjoyed 
> 
> tumblr: luciimarii


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